A Discourse on the Proper Pureblood Solution to Madmen
by Mech Anon
Summary: Or Lucius Malfoy is sentimental and morose.


No one on the platform is dressed in muggle clothes Lucius sees with pleasure. There is none of the brash informality that characterises muggle discourse nor is anyone flippant about the laws and traditions that bind the Wizarding community together and keep them safe from the threats of the muggle world. As his own children greet their friends and the great red train puffs clouds of smoke in to the bright blue sky he steps closer into the warmth of his wife's body and thinks with fond pride I made the right decision and I have worked hard for this.

If he had listened to his father he wouldn't have five healthy and happy children; if he was lucky he would have spent the war on his knees praising a mad half blood and maybe talked his way out of Azkaban to a broken hearted distrusting wife and a spoilt possibly sickly son. Nor would a Slytherin have ever found salvation or support with Dumbledore. In his own wits and cunning, in observing the difference between Lily Evans and Severus Snape he found his way, a grey way to save his world and he thinks make it better for all magical people. Even werewolves he suddenly thinks seeing Lupin in his teacher's robes guiding his ragtag band of children too damaged by the war to be placed with families on to the Express.

No he had no love for muggles, of their violence and fear, nor did he approve of muggleborns entering their world uneducated at eleven but killing them was insane and risked exposure the Wizarding world. That had left him 15 years old and at odds with both potential leaders of his world when Lily Evans, bubbling bright muggleborn, fascinated with traditions of the world had walked to the Hogwarts Great Hall with surly angry Severus Snape, muggle raised half blood,and a light lit in his head.

Muggleborns didn't like entering the Wizarding world uneducated at eleven.

Muggle raised magical children were five times more likely to be abused than magically raised magical children.

Fifty families applied to adopt each magical child available.

All year his quill wrote long subtle letters to the prophet. With every case of muggle abuse of a magical child he asked amongst images of the idealised life of a pureblood child does the Ministry have a duty intervene. With every attack by Voldemort he damned the perpetrators and questioned how the Ministry was supporting the survivors. As his letters became popular he dug through OWL results and asked teachers for first year rankings he discussed the disadvantage that muggle raised children suffered compared to wizard raised and suggested they should do something about it. He spoke about bullying endured by muggle raised children by their fearful muggle peers and compared if to rough a tumble of multiple magically raised children and suggested if they should do something about it.

All the while he publicly did something about it. With permission from Professor McGonagall he started a twice weekly school wide club for muggle raised. Catching them up on everything Hogwarts didn't teach and learning as he went about their childhoods. They told him stories of growing up and what they wished that crystallised his realisations and spun ideas through his head like a siders web as he saw what he needed to. His letters became full of their stories and his commentaries; tales of massive explosions of accidental magic and the risk of exposure were offset with discussions of how fearful their parents were and of parents who became markedly less scared after Hogwarts letters arrived. Stories of horrific abuse were reported to the club faculty supervisor Professor McGonagall and through her to the suddenly responsive Ministry.

He was being seen as someone other than his father, not a terrifying man with too public allegiances to the Knights of Walpurgis but his own man, someone who passionately believed in the safety of their world and of all members of their world. A neutral grey figure urging caution, common decency and to care about other witches and wizards, to be prepared to help them adapt to the Wizarding world. When Slughorn asked him what he wanted to be Lucius answered "A politician. I want to change the way we deal with muggle raised and the risk of exposure." and realised he meant it. The public face he had developed through the Prophet of course wasn't the full truth but he hadn't lied at any time or obscured the truth unless to protect one if his charges.

In a quiet period amidst the madness of simultaneously studying for NEWTS and being on the Board of Governors and primary investor in a fledgling school that he realised that he had accidentally broken the bond between the headmaster and his deputy. Dumbledore and his most ardent supporters were still convinced he was playing a long game for Voldemort while McGonagall and he had spoken in detail of most of his current plans, she sat with him on the school board and had suggested all the teachers. He felt it spoke of his growing maturity and genuine belief in his goals that his first thought was relief that Dumbledore wouldn't know to interfere when abuse was reported until too late.

Years later, after the mad scramble of setting up the school was complete, after he had sat for endless sessions repeating how many of his students were abused, after the Ministry finally diverted funding from the Underage Magic Section of the Improper Use of Magic Office to the new Child Protection Section of Department of Magical Law Enforcement, after he and Narcissa had stopped trying and adopted Cassiopeia and later Lyra the war between Dumbledore and Voldemort still rattled on.

Born of extremes the war took the best and spat out them out as corpses or fragile cripples now a burden on the world they had promised to serve so ably. It ripped apart a generation, leaving orphans and widows in its wake and those untouched to scared to help. He counted himself lucky that he had begun his campaign when Voldemort was attacking the families of muggle raised only and had achieved his immediate goals before the Death Eaters had the strength to attack magical targets.

Like everyone he mourned and rejoiced in equal measure when Voldemort's was banished while killing the Potters and like all Wizards from dark inclined families recognised that it was only a temporary reprieve.

Temporary but welcome. The Ministry was too fractured to unite itself and Dumbledore too extreme for most to stand behind him. If he and Narcissa hadn't had four children under five at home with the additions of their only biological child Draco and their youngest daughter Andromeda he would have stood as a moderate leader but like Frank he had a family to think about.

His laws, his school and those that had followed, they have made a difference, dulled the edges of the differences and reduced both Dumbledore and Voldemort's future supporters. He knew that even when he felt guilty to finance rather than helping Severus in his fanatical quest to find out how Voldemort had made himself immortal and make sure Dumbledore hadn't done anything similar.

Looking around the station now he knew he'd made a difference. Harry was happy and healthy, the Weasley girl Ginny extracted from her boorish brother Ron's grasp and tucked safely between Harry and Draco. Andromeda tugging a pouting Orion over to a similarly pouting Luna. Those two would be lonely and trouble this year. Cassiopeia was coming over with a Gryffindor boy, Oliver Wood he thinks, and he automatically makes sure Lyra and Andromeda are viewing their male friends platonically.

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Fini

If the world or characters appeal to anyone their welcome to play.


End file.
